SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- President Barack Obama today announced $3.4 billion in smart-grid funding to 100 companies, but National Grid was not among them.

National Grid had hoped win a grant for pilot projects in Syracuse and Saratoga Springs to install high-tech electric meters and other equipment that would let customers manage their energy use more efficiently.

Those projects would have cost $270 million, of which National Grid sought half from the U.S. Department of Energy. If the federal funding had come through, the other half would have been paid by utility ratepayers.

The grants announced today are part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and will be matched by industry funding.

Consolidated Edison, which received a grant of $136.2 million, was the only New York state utility to win funding. The nonprofit New York Independent System Operator, which runs the state electric grid, received $37.4 million.